Improvisation

Space Studies in Passive Human Sound

In each of the following exercises you will explore the connectivity of space and sit with any discomfort you might have about feeling the need to be active. You will also find that practicing these exercises regularly will improve your feel of time such that you find yourself relying less on a timer device for pacing improvisations and graphic scores. You are in charge of the pacing of your active sounds — you may decide to group them together, space them fairly evenly, or space sound clusters together. Every iteration of these exercises will feel different and be influenced by the passive sound in the environment you are in at the time.

Try these exercises both inside and outside in various sonic environments.

Listen to the passive sounds within the space and thread them into the arc of your sounds — for example, active sounds between the knocks of a radiator.

Exercise #1
5 different active sounds over 3 minutes

Exercise #2
5 different active sounds — 1 repeated 2 times and three different over 2 minutes

Exercise #3
4 different active sounds — 1 repeated 2 times and two different over 2 minutes

Exercise #4
3 different active sounds over 5 minutes

Exercise #5
6 different active sounds — 3 repeated over 7 minutes

Exercise #6
1 active sound over 1 minute

Exercise #7
8 different active sounds over 2 minutes

Exercise #8
3 different active sound over 2 minute

Listen & Active Response Exercises

The following sounds can be used for both Listen & React and Listen & Interpret exercises. Click on each link to download the sound file from Google Drive.